Now, to find out who’s Oakland’s mayor … we wait

Though mayoral candidate Don Perata leads at the ballot box — 11 points above his nearest competitor, with all Oakland precincts reporting — the city’s new ranked-choice voting system means it could be more than a week before a new mayor is formally selected.

Under the rules of ranked-choice voting, a system approved by nearly more than two-thirds of Oakland voters in 2006, voters rank their top three choices for mayor on the ballot. First choice votes are tallied, and if no candidate receives a majority — more than 50 percent of the vote — then the last — place candidate is eliminated. Then those who voted for that eliminated candidate have their second-choice votes counted. The process continues until one candidate gains a majority and is declared the official winner.

The Alameda Registrar of Voters only released first — choice results on Election Day, showing Perata with a sizable lead at 35.19 percent of first-place votes, but short of the majority needed to win outright. The ranked-choice algorithm will be run on Friday at 4:00 pm — a computer at the Registrar’s office will run the calculation — and a winner will be announced after final results are calculated.